Strong Jo Daviess sales drive up area home prices

FREEPORT — The average price of homes sold in the Freeport area in September hit its highest level since May and the amount of time it took to sell the homes was the lowest on average this year.

Those were the highlights from the Realtors Association of Northwest Illinois monthly report.

In September, members of the association were involved in 56 home sales with an average sale price of $123,611. The number of homes sold in Stephenson, Jo Daviess and Carroll counties topped the 50 sold in September 2012.

The Freeport-area market is highly diverse and September’s average price was driven up by a healthy month of sales in Jo Daviess County. There were 23 homes sold in Jo Daviess in September — the most for that county in any single month in 2013 — with an average price of $163,174. There were just five homes sold in Carroll County with an average price of $41,580.

In the city of Freeport, 16 homes sold with an average price of $70,712.

The average days on market of the 56 sales over all three counties in September was 146 days. That’s the lowest average this year. The average days on market peaked in May at 265 days.